Day 02 - Southern Coast: Perga, Aspendos

The ancient city of Perga was the beginning/ending of the Roman Road we walked on yesterday. It is only mentioned twice in the Book of Acts (chapters 13 & 14) during Paul’s missionary journeys proclaiming Jesus as Lord. It had a population of 100,000 residents that were split into upper and lower classes. We started at the stadium that was used for chariot racing. The whole area is still being excavated of which they are finding more and more items that date back to the first century. Some of the marble columns were imported from the Greek islands and were used in Stoas (columns that lined the streets) of the city.  They also have granite columns that were from central Turkey. Some people hiked up to the Acropolis which overlooked the city. You could see the theater, stadium, agora (marketplace), and Roman Bath House that had rooms with different temperatures (cool, tepid or hot).

Pastor Jesse shared that Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark would have walked through the main gate to the city as we did. The city was inspired by Hellenistic architecture that began in the Alexander the Great era. Hellenistic beliefs had many gods with an unknown God. Paul proclaimed that he knew the unknown God.

At our lunch stop we had the option of bbq chicken skewers or a 90% beef & 10% lamb combo (carved off a bbq spit it was served with a tomato based sauce on rice).

After lunch we drove to Aspendos. It is an ancient theater that is still being used today. It was constructed in the first century b.c. 90% of the seating is original. They performed tragedies were Greek plays, but the Romans introduced comedies.  Many people on our team had the opportunity to climb up to the top of the theatre to see if they could hear what people were saying near the stage below.

Pastor Jesse pointed out that in 335 b.c. Alexander the Great left behind conversational Greek which had an impact on the written language of the day. They did not write in Hebrew. He also mentioned that there were 248,000 miles of paved Roman Roads. Pax Romana was a security that provided peace by the Roman Legion.

We then drove to our hotel in Insparta for team meeting time of singing hymns, dinner, and our overnight stay.

Mark Shetler